New 96 Dodge, here's the plan
 

I just picked up a 96 Dodge 3500 12v auto 4x4.
I need the truck because I install solar panels in the summer and I plow snow in the winter. It will be used as a work truck %90 of the time. I will be using it to go to customers houses so it can't look to wild.

Here is what I am thinking. The cap has to go as I need to transport ladders. I will use a back rack and a tonneau cover. I don't know if that will help or hurt FE or it may be a wash. I imagine when I do have to carry ladders it will really hurt FE.

I am thinking racing disk wheel covers. They make them in 16" so it should fit my rims. I may also try partial rear wheel covers as the space around and above the tire is huge.

I may try a grill block. There is the large top grill, and smaller holes across the bumper that are for the tranny cooler (I think?) I don't want to block the lower holes as I don't has a tranny temp gauge, but I feel comfortable blocking the rad because I can keep an eye on the temp

I also have some air tabs kicking around so I may as well put those on the cab roof.

Also on the list is to change the diff oil to synthetic.

I read a really good article where they got 30 MPG from a truck like this.

1997 Dodge Ram 3500 Dualie Cummins - Diesel Power Magazine

Suggestions welcome

Peter

First things first; driving style will get you the biggest gains. A vehicle of such enormous proportions must be driven very slowly to keep fuel consumption reasonable. A vehicle of such enormous mass must be careful not to use the brakes, because you kill three times as much momentum as I do when you stop. You must also drive carefully, as you are a hazard to cyclists, Metros, Insights, and Malibus alike. Plus, vehicles in that class are much less safe in single-car crashes, which are the most common type.

There are some areas where you can give the truck the aerodynamic attention to detail it should have gotten from the factory, without customers noticing.

Fill in the panel gaps around the bumper and hood with weatherstripping, block most of the grille, and try to make the underside of the vehicle almost as smooth as the top.

There's no reason to mount an antenna vertically. If reclined 45° or 60°, its frontal area is reduced by 29% or 50%, and its cross section as presented to the wind goes from circular (high drag) to elliptical (low drag).

I would also kill those clearance lights on the roof unless they are required by law. You could reduce your ride height, re-do the rear fenders from a clean sheet, and replace the passenger side mirror with a camera.

My best advice would be to get a stick-shifted compact station wagon that can tow a 4'x8' trailer, and only use the RAM for jobs that the wagon can't do.

HTH,
RobertSmalls

Completely unnecessary and unrelated to fuel economy.

those wheel arches seem hugely oversized. even lowered this vehicle will have quite some ground clearence, but if lowering is not an option perhaps adding some wheel skirts could be good. keeping it reasonable these could cover the the area abouve the side moldings, and these could be made form either plastic or aluminum sheet. a spray can of matching paint will makes them look as if they belonge there and they would give you some extra space to advertise your phone number or whatever

an undertray could also be a good thing, and appart from the aero gains (even if they would be small) it'll help keep the underside of the vehicle clean and keep dirt out of the engine... not hugely important, but an added advantage.

further what i'd do is look as a modest airdam extention, this might create a lower pressure below the vehicle, getting more airflow trough the grill thus allowing you to block it more without loosing any cooling.
Also i'd investigate if it's possible to install some larger dams in front of the wheels... again a shot spray paint, black in this case will render these mods almost invisible the anyone not paying attention... finally a little camm back spoiler at the rear will once again not stand out but might help airflow separation at the rear, also a strip that coveres the gap between the cab and the rear compartment.

just some ideas :)

i think most points raised where valid in in the best intrest of everyone.
i find that driving carefull has many benefits in any vehicle and being aware of all traffic helps avoiding sudden stops or other situations wich as best kill FE at wost people.
larger vehicles have certain downsides, and being aware of these will only help the driver being a better and safer driver.

All motor vehicles are a danger to cyclists and other cars. Singling out the owner as a DANGER only due to his vehicle, and then using various eco cars as an example is certainly coming from a heavily biased point of view.

He came for fuel economy, not to be blasted with anti-truck sentiments.

Ya guys, I get it.

As I said, I install solar panels for a living. I understand the whole burning of fossil fuels being bad. I searched long and hard to find a 12v Cummins because they get the best fuel mileage of any diesel. I purposely pointed out that it is a work truck and will be used as a work truck %90 of the time. I am not some shlub coming here and asking how I can get better gas mileage for my Expedition because my single person 150 mile commute is hurting my pocket book. I also need a truck that big because I helped build a solar powered hair and make-up trailer that is used in the film industry and I occaisionally tow that trailer to make extra money. I also plan on running the truck on WVO as I did my last work truck, which makes the truck carbon neutral because the CO that is exhausted had just recently been absorbed from the atmosphere by the vegetable, unlike any gas car that is adding CO to the atmoshpere that has been locked away for 10's of millions of years. Also if you notice, the truck is a 1996 because I know the carbon footprint of an old vehicle has already been paid off as opposed to getting a new truck.

http://www.wired.com/science/planete...ies_09usedcars

When you consider the truck will be run mostly on WVO I would argue it's carbon footprint will be smaller than "any" ICE that burns gas. If you look closely in the pictures you can see the reflection of my 1985 diesel Mercedes, again a car that has had the carbon footprint paid off years ago and because of it's good MPG I would put it up against most new cars in terms of carbon footprint. It gets a shot of WVO when it is warm enough outside.

Do people realize that it takes the atmosphere 100 years to adjust to new CO levels? That means that we will not see the effects of what we are doing today for 100 years. Got kids?

Frankly, I don't think you could find a greener person that me. I have a solar hot water system on my house for domestic hot water and my PV panels produce so much energy that they actually pay all the utility bills for my house, gas, electricity and water.

I am working on getting a goverment loan to develope low cost solar water heating systems so that everyone will install then. I also have several products I want to develope that would replace gas generators with PV/battery units.

I am building a $40,000 solar system on a commercial building I own that should power a few houses.

I am a member of the Green party and I may run as the candidate for Parliment in the next election. The Party told me the position is mine if I want it.

Anyways....

I did a grill block today. I found some outdoor window shrink wrap plastic so I thought it might be a bit thicker and stand up to being a grill block. Sadly it seemed to be the same thickness as the indoor stuff. I covered the whole grill. These trucks are know to run cool so we will see how it goes. If I start to overheat it will be easy to just rip it off. Pictures tell the story

money where mouth is

Driving habits & mile reduction through route planning should net sizeable gains.

I have seen ladder racks added to trucks with caps. No idea how they did it though. It may be a plate that goes all around the bedrail & sticks out to weld the rack to. You could then put the cap on top of the plate. The rack could be made from streamlined tubing or tubing with a streamlined cover.

You could make an aero box the ladders can slide into from the rear & a latch to prevent ladders from sliding out. A little tubing & some aluminum flashing riveted to it should work nicely. The entire box could come off when not needed.

If you don't need or want the cap, the above is of course pointless.

Banks Engineering makes some products that can help with MPG from the engine. A fellow here at work installed it onto his Dodge ('04 or 4) & he picked up 3 to 4 MPG (avg. on fill tank method) during his normal commute. Picked up a couple when hauling 5th wheel as well. Banks things are expensive but very well made. Whether you would ever recoupe the cost I depends on how many miles you drive.

Using the block heater year round, when possible, will help with warm up.

I assume the truck has mud flaps. Someone makes low drag mud flaps, essentially made from a mesh that claim to reduce drag & increase rearward visibility in rain by reducing spray. I will have to look up the companies name unless someone comes up with it first.

Don

couldn't resist making a little image manipulation.

maybe not all doable, but perhaps some inspiration here, and not the sort of mod that would really compromise much of the vehicles intended use or make it look to strange.

and in theory all id would need is some brackets and some suiteable plastic or metal sheet.
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j5.../image12-1.png

Thanks for the help guys. I was having a sh!tty day when I posted that snarky response. I have to remember people do not like fanatic's.

I did drive on the highway today with the full grill block and it did not get even close to over-heating. It seems it will heat up to about 190, the t-stat opens a bit, and it drops down to 140 or so. I could see this as a problem that the truck is operating to cool. I know I can get a higher temp t-stat so that is on my project list.

I found factory made wheel skirts! Take a look.

Fiberglass Truck Parts & Accessories: Dodge Truck Products

That is next on my list.

The cap is already gone and replaced with a tonneau cover.

I ordered racing disc's yesterday.

Well those fender skirts look pretty slick! Nice find, BUT - will they fit on your dually fenders?

I've marveled at the airspace around the wheels in lots of larger truck wheelwells. It's crazy. If you're going offroading and expect a lot of deflection, then I can see having it there. But most of them don't get much beyond the curb, and then only in parking lots and driveways. You can seriously close up a lot of gap and get some air management.

See what Phil Knox - aka Aerohead - has done with slick caps on his trucks. If there's a way you could have a cap most of the time that was super-easy and convenient to roll up, fold up, or otherwise get out of the way of your next load of solar gear, you'd be reaping the benefits with every mile.

5 mpg on WVO is better than 50 on petro diesel, in my book. And burning it to install solar panels is even better. If you're doing better than that, you're ahead of the curve by a long shot.

So dish: solar electric, hot air, hot water? The picture looked like evacuated tubes.

I'm the facility manager for a rescue mission in Tennessee, I take one look at our monthly utility bills, another look at our large expanse of gloriously unblocked south-facing roof, and daydream. It'd be nice, but I'm not sure it can deliver the kind of volume I need.

I've been looking for pics of a Dodge diesel that was modded for mpg, but the article you linked wasn't it. It was lowered and had a custom massive NASCAR-style front air dam that replaced or covered the entire front bumper below the headlights/grille. It also had a GearVendors overdrive unit. I don't recall what their claimed mileage was, but I think it was right near 30mpg highway unloaded also.

Do you need the dual rear wheels? That's a huge frontal area adder and probably hurts Cd as well. The dual fenders are fiberglass or some composite, but I don't recall how intact the normal bed side is underneath. I know you said you tow, but unless you tow the trailer a lot at highway speeds and it's heavy you don't really need the stability of the duals. You could swap out your dual axle for an axle from a 2500 and convert your truck to a SRW3500. I'd recommend swapping to the 2500's wheels at the same time to cut down on the front wheel's profile. I have seen a DRW pickup with a narrowed axle and straight bedside, but I didn't see inside the bed to determine how much space that consumed. I imagine it took at least a mini-tub out of the bed floor.

I have 16 PV (electricity producing) panels that cover the deck and 30 evcuated tubes on the roof for domestic hot water. If I were to do it again I would go with flat plates. There is a great program here in Ontario where you can sell electricity back to the grid and they will pay you 80 cents a KW! That is how my panels can pay all my utilities for my house.

There may be similar programs that could help the rescue mission. I know in the US there a lot of program where they will rebate part of the capital cost of a solar system. You should look into that.

I know we have been approached by Habitat for Humanity so we are trying to get a supplier to give us a system which we will install would install for free.

update

I drove all week with the full grill block and there are no over-heating issues at all. I think I actually have to replace my t-stat as it is too COLD!

My tank before the mods gave me 13.5L/100km or 17.2 MPG

My last tank gave me 13L/100km or 18.09 MPG

another update

I got my racing disks. They only fit on the rear wheels. It think it should make a noticeable improvement because the old hubcaps are like huge bowls. There is a large open area in the back wheels. I also had 5 airtabs in the garage so I threw those on the roof. I can fit a few more up there so I will order some more.

I had to go and install some solar panels 80 miles away so I took the oppourtunity to test my MPG. I filled up and drove 168 miles round trip and filled up again. I used 31 litres. It was all highway and I kept it just under 60 mph. For that trip I averaged 11.48 L/100 Km or 20.49 MPG. Not bad for a 1 ton truck.

My last improvement is the wheel skirts. I ordered them last week.

Maybe try cutting the disks in the center to clear the truck's hubs. This would smooth the wheel from the lip the the hub, for how ever much it would be worth.

If you're going to keep the grille blocked you might ought to think of adding engine monitoring (egt, etc) as things can get out of hand quickly with a diesel. Frankly, if the truck isn't being worked, then a cheaper gasser would be a better choice all around.

As to the 12V's being the best for mileage you'll get arguments (I think the 6.2 GM gutless wonder had it), and for those otherwise unfamiliar, yes, the Cummins is best since 1990, but the last "best" year was the 305 ISB in early '04. '03 & '04 CTD's are at a great price/mileage point now, in general. The 5.9 is better than the 6.7. Manual trans over automatic, 2WD over 4WD, etc.

Auto trans tend to be sloppy and the aftermarket can help when it's time to rebuild. That, and proper tires would do a lot as the truck ages.

I've measured a number of oem truck spoilers and the average low height above ground is 7-10" or so. There are some threads around here about cleaning up the underside and there might be some pieces that would work for a 4wd used off-road.

I'd say driving style is the main thing. On a 45-mph road only accelerate up to 35 mph and drift upwards slightly from there if need be. The penalty of coming to a full stop, or numerous ones, is easily offset by staying more miles on a freeway. Distance can be your friend. Trip planning is the most important. Don't turn the key without a mental picture of the route in place. Real men use maps. GPS navigation is almost worthless in this regard.

I was on one of my usual 320-mile commutes a few days ago (responsibilities in two cities) and noted to my wife that, even after over 200 miles, just 20-minutes of high idle with Max A/C lost us a full 1/2-mpg (27.5 down to just a hair under 27) off that tank filled at departure.

Look up the HP/TQ chart for your year of CTD. Note the rpm point at which the curves cross. That is almost an ideal cruise rpm. A common rail ISB is capable of .32 BSFC at 2,000-rpm, so anything under that is great.

On mine, 1,700/25 rpm translates to 58 mph. On these 740-mile roundtrips I can trip plan 24-mpg empty or loaded, rain or 100F and am always traversing one of the largest cities in North America. Highs are above 27. Travel slower than 80+% of traffic (learn to use mirrors), keep lane centered (get alignment perfected, not just acceptable), know ALL stops ahead of time (no jumping on and off roadway); in short, plan every trip.

When I am loaded or towing I plan all stops (as when I was a truck driver) for two hour intervals. So, depending on whether or not I needed fuel, these stops included highway rest areas, truck stops, restaurants, and my destination. Since even my personal rig was 63' long I often used satellite imagery (BING) or GOOGLE "Street view" to confirm ingress/egress. No backing, no unpaved lots, etc. Whatever your business, knowing exact routes to suppliers, etc from customer location ahead of time is crucial. An indecisive driver behind a diesel doesn't stand a prayer.

Once you know what is possible (and a dually 3500 4WD with auto trans is the worst specification) then spending money to save money will make future purchases sensible (thousands of miles of driving to have accurate figures). Wheel covers and fender skirts on a DRW are pointless compared to changing to SRW for reduced rolling and aero resistance (as noted above). It's ego stroking. A DRW isn't more stable than an SRW, but it does have greater payload capacity and more drive axle resistance to movement due to increased tread. True stability means the drive and steer axles are the same width. In other words, get the truck set up for the way you actually use it.

Never idle and never stop. Keep a record of elapsed times, as any average road speed above 25-mph is key. If mine is above 27 mph for engine-on time, then fuel numbers always look great. Take note of wind direction and speed. 5-8 mph tailing wind tends to offset worst of rear aero, IMO.

Consider an exhaust brake as well. Weigh the rig empty (driver, full fuel, normal tools and supplies) and then on occasion check with a load so that you know the "break even" point (1,000-lbs won't affect much, 2,100-lbs might/will?). And any lift kit or suspension/tire changes from stock are likely to backfire as far as mpg. Same with "tuners".

Your logbook needs to include:

fuel used
miles traveled
elapsed time (hourmeter)
calculations for mpg and average speed

I use 12-entries per fillup to track maintenance, etc. I like to change air/fuel filters at oil change intervals of 6-mos/6,000. Investigate fuel filtering and other upgrades. Keep a spare VP-44 on hand. Look into the dowel pin problem. Etc.

Good luck, look forward to more.

Two things I've found to be effective (beyond the no-brainer stuff like maintenance and driving habits) are aerodynamics and gearing.

You have a good start going on the aero, but the most effective aero mod for pickups is an aero shell over the bed. Your biz constrains your choice of a bed shell. Cleaning up those cavernous Dodge wheel wells couldn't hurt.

What's your gear ratio?

What if the outer dually is just removed?
KB